No sign of Castro brothers in Cuba power handover

Thursday August 3, 3:05 PM
No sign of Castro brothers in Cuba power handover

HAVANA (Reuters) - Nearly three days after Cuba's historic handover of
power, neither ailing President Fidel Castro nor his brother Raul, to
whom he temporarily ceded control, has been seen by an anxious Cuban public.

Close aide Ricardo Alarcon told a U.S. radio program on Wednesday that
Castro, who had had a stomach operation, was "very alert" and resting
after giving up power on the communist-ruled island for the first time
in 47 years.

No photographs or television pictures of Castro, 79, have been released
since his operation for intestinal bleeding and there was also no sign
of defense minister Raul, 75, Castro's designated successor.

"We don't know what's going on. We're waiting for Raul to speak," said
Vilma Gutierrez, a mother of three who works in a ramshackle state-owned
shop selling subsidized potatoes and bananas. Her part of town saw riots
in 1994 during the economic crisis set off by the collapse of the Soviet
Union.

A finger to her lips, she said: "People are keeping their mouths shut.
They don't know what's going to happen."

There was a small increase in police presence in poorer parts of Havana
and communist neighborhood organizations had activated "rapid response
groups" used to put down riots.
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Some Cubans with relatives in the security forces said military and
other uniformed personnel had been mobilized in barracks and police
stations as a precaution.

But Havana's sweltering streets, their stylish old buildings dilapidated
from years of neglect, were quiet.

Castro, the world's longest-ruling head of government, gave Raul
provisional powers as head of the armed forces, Communist Party and
Council of State.

'RECOVERY'

Fidel Castro was still lucid, Alarcon said.

"He's in, I would say, a normal period of recovery after an important
surgery. That's essentially what I would say, but very alive and very
alert," he told the Democracy Now! show.

A leading Cuban exile group in Miami called for military officials and
civilians to establish a provisional government to "end the dictatorship
of the Castro brothers."

"We are asking those in the military in Cuba to take hold of their own
future to establish a provisional authority with the civil and military
members of Cuba who do not want this succession of power," said Cuban
American National Foundation Chairman Jorge Mas Santos.

Castro has not been seen in public since July 26 and the scant
information about his condition has sparked rumors in the United States
that he could be dead or running a "dress rehearsal" for his succession.

Raul, who commands loyalty in the army and police, is seen as competent,
although some foreign analysts doubt he has the charisma to hold the
system together.

The Bush administration, which says it will not relax its economic
embargo on Cuba even if Raul takes over permanently, urged exiles not to
try to cross the narrow straits from Florida and told Cubans on the
island not to leave.

"This is not a time for people to try to be getting into the water and
going either way," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Washington has maintained its Cuban embargo since 1962 and repeatedly
tried to kill Castro, once with a poisoned cigar.

Kim Jong-il, the reclusive leader of communist North Korea, sent Castro
a get-well note.

"I sincerely wish you a speedy recovery to your health so that you can
excellently continue to carry out the Cuban revolution and the great
mandate given to you by the people of Cuba," Kim said in a telegram to
Castro dated Aug. 2.